THERE was a well attended picket line of pathology department workers outside the Queen’s Hospital Romford (BHRT) yesterday.
Red Unite flags were waving and there were hoots from horns. Pickets burst into chants of: ‘What do we want? Pay Protection! When do we want it? Now!’ and ‘Union-busting is disgusting! 1,2,3,4, We won’t take it anymore!’
Ilyaas Hakim, Biomedical Scientist, told News Line: ‘The main reason we’re outside is because our reasonable demands are not being met and our voices not heard.
‘Our demand is to honour the original agreement on pay protection that we signed. If they want to change it, then they should go through the proper channels and follow their own procedure.’
James Murphy, Medical Lab Assistant, said: ‘Management keep refusing to listen to our voice. All our points on bullying, harassment and pay protection are being ignored.
‘Newer staff feel less valued, because the pay protection money that they get is less than for long-standing staff. But the newer staff work just as hard.’
One of the Unite representatives said: ‘We’re still in dispute. They can never give us an answer. Outsourcing of clinical engineering has happened. Because of that we’re concerned that privatisation of the lab could be the next step.’
The regional officer for Unite, Sujarte Virdee, said: ‘We met (health secretary) Wes Streeting, the local MP for this constituency. He told us he would speak to the Trust.’
